WHATS UP GAMERS WELCOME BACK TO MY EPIC ESSAY ON SCANDINAVIAN-AMERICAN HISTORY
Just kidding, this is more serious than the intro suggests. Last Time I made a history essay about Scandinavia, and Because Inga The Finnish-American is really passive-aggressive with her requests, she asked me for the Essay on Scandinavian-Americans.
Here it is Inga. I sacrificed all my brain cells and time that was supposed to be spent on my Math Homework on. I used about 25 different resources, spent 2 hours researching and writing this.
Oh and I started writing this at around 9:30pm US central time yesterday.
It all started in the 1800s, The United Kingdom of Norway and Sweden was brand new, and a lot of people were pretty excited. The Norwegians wanted to stop being controlled by Denmark, and the Swedes wanted to expand their horizons with colonization. Because of this, people were happy, And everything could be absolutely perfect and could be as nice as modern Scandinavia… right?
You are wrong. It went very wrong. The Population was higher by 60% (a little bit higher To the population that Scandinavia is currently in) and that was a pretty big deal back in the 1800s. There was also a very unbalanced socialeconomic status barrier. There were more poor than middle-class and rich people. If you had a job, Minimun wage would be your payment and if you worked as a farmer, It will be hard unless you lived in Denmark or in certain cities in Norway and Sweden.
*cue dramatic music*
Because of this, The Scandinavians were like “You know what Norden (Norway+Sweden) Union, We hate you. You are a big scam. We are going to America.” and then they left. They did not wanted to deal with the absolute scammage The Norden Union was (I am all in for the Kalmar Union, but because I dont support what the government of Norden did, I am not supporting them)
Then they came. They came. They came to….. Midwestern USA which might not sound as exciting because I wanted to add some suspenese but anywayswho, They 1st went on Boat, then on train and then on Boat again (as Inga said, It is a rite of passage knowing how Scandinavians got to the US anyways) So yeah.
And in case you are wondering what in the Emigrants novels in real life things they done… they done the same things they did back with Norden… Just in a different continent. Pretty underwhelming and boring. They just stood there
But before you click off this super ultra extra mega boring essay, there is more.
Flashback to 130 years later and some Norwegian-American dude who lived in the Norwegian Settlement of Duluth, Minnesota submitted an idea for a holiday. Leif Eriksson day (also known as October 9th and Scandinavian-American heritage day) and it became legal in 15 states and 1 Canadian province, and thus, Scandinavian-American history was made
Today, Scandinavian heritage in the US is… welp. Depressing to say this but, L O S T
Depending on your location, there might be extremely strong connections between themselves and their Scandinavian ancestry, while in other places the opposite. But sadly, most of it is the terrible L word… Lost
However, THERE IS HOPE. There are multiple websites and programs to protect Nordic culture. For example, there is one called Daughters of Norway that was created to help Young Women and Girls show their love for Norwegian culture, and I might join once I get the chance to. There are also Museums and Heritage centers that you could visit, and I visited 3 of them this summer and they were amazing. There are also festivals (Like The Vista Viking Festival, Nordicfest and Norsk Høst) that you could go to aswell (Im going to Nordicfest next year for my 14th birthday so I am so excited)
Lol. This literally took 2 pages on google docs. 2 pages of absolutely nothing but boredom.
DONT UPVOTE THIS THING BTW
